American Idol: "New York Auditions"Review

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It's all about the crazies, melodrama, and stories this episode.

By Jason Van Horn

If there was one thing that dominated this episode more than anything else, it was the melodramatic sob stories and the insane crazies. The melodrama came mostly from Ashanti Johnson, who has actually made it to Hollywood twice before, but they just didn't see it happening with her old school voice though she was good. After being told no, she went into a long diatribe about how hard she had worked, and it was made absolutely hilarious by playing the daytime soap opera music behind it. If you are looking to get into an acting school and have to perform a scene, do this one, and you'll have it in the bag. Another melodramatic moment came from Nakia Claiborne, who entered the room full of energy and bubbling over with personality, but ended up leaving quite saddened, and before she left she made one final plea about how she is tired of being told no and doesn't want to walk out of the room a failure. The thing about Nakia was she could sing fairly well the fast stuff, but her voice fell apart when trying to go slow.

As for the crazies, look no further than Isadora Furman (who was delusional that she could actually sing); Ian Benardo (who pitched a fit during the So You Think You Can Dance Auditions and pitched an equal one here after they said he sucked - he started off the show and really drug it down, simply because they gave him so much screen time, and his endless rants and unfunny comebacks were as bad as his singing); and then the topper of them all came from Sarah Goldberg, who we were honestly very frightened of and feared for the judges. Sarah actually admitted she couldn't sing, and the reason she was on the show was so they would put her into Hollywood, train her, and mold her into an American Idol just like they would want her. Sarah had this insane look in her eyes, and with all the screaming and way she just became a wreck, she was really scary.

New York City contestant Ian Benardo

As for the actual good singers, there wasn't anyone amazingly great from voice alone like the past episode, but there were some people who had both great looks, interesting stories, and good voices that merged together well to make them a nice package. Sarah Burgess was extremely cute and had lied to her parents about not going to try for American Idol because her dad didn't believe in her; it was great to see her go over well with the judges and to break into tears after they said her dad would be proud (Simon had a subtle but touching moment here where he gave her a smile, a nod, and it was all he needed to say, "You did well. Good job.") Amanda Coluccio and Antonello Barba were friends (the first trained, the other one not) and while both had the look and were good, they told the untrained that she was actually better than the trained and to not let the fact she wasn't trained affect her opinion of herself. Porcelana Patino had the biggest story change-wise, as she had been working out twice a day for a whole year in preparation for the audition so she had the look, and trained vocally as well. Porcelana, we must say, the work paid off well, because she had quite the chiseled body (as Simon said) and had a sexy swagger and voice that won the judges over.

There were other good ones as well, such as Jory Steinberg (another cute one with talent); Chris Richardson (a very Justin Timberlake vibe); Rachel Zevita (opera singer who sang three different and distinct sounding voices); and Nicholas Pedro (who made it to Hollywood last year, but bailed out after screwing up the words of a song). Nicholas sounded really good back then, and still sounds just as good now, and the judges indeed still really liked him and pushed him through to Hollywood again to give it another try.

Overall, some of the stories were really good, and there was some talent, but the rest was too much drama and bad singers for our taste.